Deb’s Blog of Mac, Life, and Stuff

The 7th Annual Malibu Wine Classic, a fund-raiser for Childhelp is being held at the Malibu Civic Center on Saturday, 8/29.

Great food & wine.

Confirmed wineries for 2009 include: AJB, Alma Rosa, Anglim, Blair Fox, Brander, Bridlewood Estate Winery, Buttonwood, Calcareous, Carr Winery, Casa Dumetz, Cass Winery, Ciello, Clesi Wines, Clos Selene, Consilience, Cordon / Santa Maria Winery, Core, Demetria, Derby Wine Estates, Dragonette Cellars, Fiddle Head, Foley Estate Wines Gioia, Griffin, Hoyt, Jaffurs, Jim Palmer’s Malibu Vineyards, Kaena, Jim Palmer’s Malibu Vineyards, Kaena, Ken Brown Wines, Kenneth Volk, Laetitia, L’Aventure, Linne Calodo Cellars, Lone Madrone, Lucas & Lewellen, Malibu Family Wines, Malibu Solstice Vineyard, Malibu Vineyards, Malibu Solstice Vineyard, Malibu Vineyards, Rosenthal Malibu Estate, Sanity, Sextant, Sierra Madre Vineyards, Silver, Stolpman, Strange Wines, Summerland, Sweeney Canyon, Tablas Creek, Tantara, Tercero, Terry Hoage Vineyards, The Malibu Vineyard, Vihuela Winery, Villa Creek, Vina Robles.
More to be announced.

Confirmed Restaurants for 2009 include: Water Grill, BARREL Malibu, Monsieur Marcel, STK, American Flatbread, Casa Escobar Malibu, Charlie’s Malibu, The Four Seasons Hotel, The Engaging Gourmet, Malibu Toffee, Michael’s Restaurant, Moonshadows, SaddlePeak Lodge, The Sunset, Cafe/Malibu Pier Club, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Luscious Organic Desserts and more to be announced! Water will be provided by Eternal Water New Zealand. Celebrity guests TBD.

Info here.

Over the past couple of years I have had the honor of getting to know

You may not have a Spago in your own town, but it’s likely your town was still affected by the “Spago-ization of America.” Imagination and designs, she had. A website, not. I’m happy to say that now she has her own website, and with it, a place to share her inspirations and adventures in design. If you’re interested in design, check out BarbaraLazaroff.com and check back in the following weeks as we flesh it out.

Meeting up with a fellow Syosset High School grad, we decided to check out Church & State, Chef Walter Manzke’s bistro. Sophie Gayot had recommended it and I know Sophie puts a lifetime of food-critic experience behind her reviews and recommendations. It was excited to get to eat someplace she’d liked, and I’m glad I did! I was also very happy to find such a fine dining experience where entrees don’t start at $25. If you’re ever staying in downtown LA and want a non-pretentious, unstuffy, meal of one fine bite after another, make a note of Church & State.
You can check out Sophie’s review and my 2-cents at Gayot.com.

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Recently I helped a friend buy a new MacBook Pro. It arrived and as he excitedly opened it his wife, seeing the beautiful slim silver beauty asked how come he got plain silver instead of choosing the striking red one like I had.

My striking red MacBook Pro is courtesy of Speck. It’s called the SeeThru Satin. I wasn’t a huge fan of the hard shell until I saw and then touched this one. It was, however, difficult to choose a color! The purple really had me too. And the pink. I finally selected the red one, which is called cranberry, because of the Apple logo looking red.

http://www.speckproducts.com/products/seethru-satin/macbook-pro-15-aluminum-black-keys/164

This is exactly what I just posted to hersheys.com/contactus. They may not care, but I tried and keep trying. Maybe others are too. And maybe they will listen when enough of us do.

I discovered the ALMOND JOY cookies and some of the rest of that line last week at Rite Aid, choosing to buy the ALMOND JOY. It looked great and tasted just as great. This is definitely a cookie I can enjoy.

However — and this is big — I will not be buying them again. It simply kills me to see plastic used in packaging like that. I care more about the planet and the future health of its inhabitants than I do about enjoying a cookie. You can package these with just the one inner plastic by having two rolls and rolling that plastic tightly around each roll.  Don’t tell me they won’t look perfect. The planet doesn’t look perfect. And we have no clue what we’re doing to ourselves by having plastic degrading in the landfill.

I am VERY disappointed! These are new cookies. You had the opportunity to choose your packaging. And knowing the issues you have selected to go this way.

I’m less a fan of Hershey’s now.

I saw the new Microsoft PC commercials today. Each tracks a person who goes computer shopping. The person expresses his/her needs. “To me, the Mac is all about esthetics, one man says.” So the person chooses a computer – a PC, of course, and gets handed the cash to pay for it.

My first thought:
Too bad these people aren’t being given money to buy software to run on these PCs — or money to buy virus and other internet protection.

The woman in the first commercial I saw said she didn’t want to spend $1,000 on a 13″ screen. So she got a PC that was $699. Now she just has to spend a few hundred dollars on necessary software that would not have been necessary if she’d selected the Mac! I sure hope her time isn’t worth as much as a penny because she’ll be spending a lot of time working out the hassles. (And I do wonder  what the resolution is on the 17″ that she selected because it might just be close to the same as what she’d have on the smaller, lighter MacBook.) 

Maybe they’re just paid actors, rather than true suckers. 
But I feel bad for the people who watch these ads and fall for them.

Tonight I brought the documentary MacHEADS The Movie to the Macintosh User Group in Northridge (MacValley.com).

A couple of the attendees had already seen it at the Macworld Expo World Premiere. They commented that they liked it better the second time. Lliked it even better, that is. I asked why. One said he saw a lot more this time. The next person agreed, adding that there is so much in it.

Tonight was my 3rd time seeing it. Last night at the WOCMUG screening was my 2nd time. I thought the same thing last night. And tonight I got to know the people in it even more, and knew what I wanted to pay particular attention to this time. I’ve decided that’s why it’s great to have the video.

It’s exciting for me to watch the viewer’s reactions as well. I’m going to be taking the movie to a few more groups in SoCal. 

I am adding this to my blog via ScribeFire, a plug-in which works from within FireFox.

This week I got a large post card in the mail from the Los Angeles Metro. It was exciting — at first.

The card says, “Out all night? So are we.”
It then shows me 4 bus routes that are somewhat in my area. 2 of the 4 are about a 2-mile walk, but the other 2 are just a few blocks. So far, this looks great. The Metro folks have done and outreach that gives me info that enables me to take public transit instead of driving.

Here’s what the card doesn’t say:

1. where are the actual bus stops? They show 3 main north-south roads but these are several miles apart, so what about all the people who live in between them? Are there local stops at 1am, 3am, 5am?
2. how far apart is each bus? Will I be waiting 30 minutes for a bus, or 10?
3. what times does the bus hit some particular street? If I get to a main corner at 1am will I be waiting until 1:20, 1:40… or did I just miss the bus?

Looking for a good, wholesome film to enjoy with your kids? If you saw and enjoyed the 1975 original version of Escape to Witch Mountain with Tia and Tony (as I did), you’ll enjoy this updated version. (They kind of call it another chapter and there are hints of that, but as a future chapter, it’s a bit flawed, so suspend that and just enjoy.)

Adults will love the humor and the references to the original film. If you follow sci-fi or the question of UFOs you’ll  get even more of a kick out of it. But if you don’t have a clue about sci-fi or UFO debates you’ll still catch a lot, which is part of why you’ll enjoy it.

Meanwhile, as you catch the adult humor and references, your kids will simply enjoy the adventure. And you will too.

To give you an idea of my frame of reference, movies I can think of as great for both kids & adults: Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, and Cars.

Note: I keep hearing from people around 30-45 that they were not impressed by the previous Witch Mountain stories. Invariably, they are recalling the 1995 remake. Put that one out of your mind.

One more thing: The good guys always use Macs. Only now, maybe the bad guys do too.

In 1975, Disney came out with Escape to Witch Mountain. I loved it and have remembered it fondly. Later another version was released and I don’t mind that I missed knowing about it.

Today I’m excited that I’m about to see a preview of the latest version. As a teen I saw the original story as whimsy. As an adult now with this updated version and today’s scientific knowledge, I see the actual scientific possibilities of things like passing you arm through a solid closed door and Warp Drive. And I’ve seen the mind control matter in the form of brainwave or muscle-controlled computers, so it’s not really far-fetched that Sara and Seth move solid objects. There is so much fun stuff in this film that is actually possible — and the what-ifs promise to be as much fun as the plain fun of a good adventure.

I’m looking forward to Race to Witch Mountain.

I’ve finally given into blogging and am now exploring how far I can take WordPress. So WordPress is installed on my server now, thanks to the amazing Scott Immerman, of SEAL Systems. And, now it’s starting to match my HTML design. We’ll see where this road leads for me.